Shattered New World
by ElvenDovahkiin
Summary: Riley Cooper was frozen with her brother, Nate, and his wife, Nora, when the bombs fell. She woke up four years before her sister-in-law, and she thinks her family is dead. When she finally meets Nora, the Wasteland has changed her, and she's not the little girl she used to be.
1. Whole new world

_October 18th, 2077_

Nora checked over the room she and Nate had just spent the last few hours assembling. Everything was looking just how she'd planned and she smiled satisfied to herself. It had been no easy feat rearranging the heavy furniture, especially with the arrival of Shaun resulting in the loss of what had previously been the guest room.

Nate gave her one of his award winning smiles.

"Looks great, honey." He said as he wrapped his burly arms around her waist, pulling her closer.

"Maybe I should forget the whole lawyer thing, investigate interior design instead?" Nora murmured as the couple brought their faces closer together. Their intimate moment was interuppted by the voice belonging to the household Mr. Handy.

"Miss Riley has arrived!" His accented voice rang through the house. In an instant, Nora and Nate separated, excitedly making their way to the front door.

"Thanks Codsy." Nora said as she passed the robot. Nate had already made his way to the door, flinging it open to embrace the startled figure waiting outside.

"Riles!" He greeted the young girl as he released her from his bear hug. Nora quickly made her way over to the door and was similarly greeted with a hug.

The eighteen year old released her sister-in-law and took a step back allowing Nate and Nora to get a proper look at her. She'd grown considerably since the last visit and she now stood taller than Nora. Her usually long chestnut hair sat on her shoulders but her spark of mischief rained in those steel grey eyes of hers.

"So, when does Shaun get to meet his Aunty Riley?"

 _October 23rd, 2077_

Fear. There was no other word for what Riley was feeling as she followed her brother out of his house. Breathing had suddenly become harder and she could feel her legs turning to jelly. She'd been worried about the War before, but she'd _never_ thought it would come to this. She was thankful that her father had ensured her and her brother's family's safety by scoring them a place in the nearby Vault. She looked to Nora, who was holding a sleeping baby Shaun, and saw a mirrored look of fear in her eyes.

They continued hurrying up the hill towards the Vault and Riley felt a pang of sorrow as they made their way through the gate whilst others had no chance of getting to safety. Nate turned around, beckoning Nora under his arm.

"It'll be okay, we'll be fine." He murmured to his wife as they briskly walked to the Vault platform. The four members of the Cooper family huddled together as the platform made its decent and they witnessed the beginning of a Nuclear holocaust.

* * *

Once they were down into the Vault and the magnitude of the situation had truly sunk in, they listened to the instructions the Vault-Tec employees were issuing and went to receive their vault suits. The tight fitting jumpsuit was a struggle to get into to say the least.

Nate, who had been the first to succeed took Shaun from Nora's arms as she slipped into her suit. Once dressed, Riley silently followed the couple to the decontamination pods before being stopped by a Vault-Tec employee.

"Ma'am, your pod is in the second room." The man said, addressing Riley. Nate began to protest, requesting that they stay together.

"It's fine," Riley said solemnly, "I'll see you guys soon."

She followed a man to an identical room where other civilians were already getting into their pods. She turned her back once more before entering her pod, to see the large door to the room being closed.

"It's a whole new world." She muttered to herself before entering the pod.

 _August 11th, 2283_

Riley Cooper gasped for air as she felt herself regaining consciousness, her body was shivering from the freezing temperatures and she collapsed to the ground as tried to take a step from her pod.

Everything was eerily quiet and the eighteen year old looked around and screamed when her eyes settled on a skeleton lying inches from her face. Still disoriented, she shook herself, making sure she wasn't hallucinating. Unfortunately, the skeleton in front of her was very real. She pushed herself off the ground and looked around. None of the other pods were open, and as she inspected further, to her horror, the bodies inside were lifeless.

She knelt down beside the skeleton and tentatively removed the Pip-Boy from its wrist, and when she spotted the 10mm Pistol next to the body she decided to take it.

 _You can never be too prepared,_ she thought to herself.

She had to find her brother, she wanted answers to the questions that were increasing exponentially in her mind. Staggering her way to the door she used the Pip-Boy to open it, and as she lowered her hand, her heart stopped.

2283.

Two hundred years had passed. _Two hundred years._

She exited the door and started to run to the adjacent vault door, where her brother and Nora and Shaun were. Nothing could stop the tears that streamed down Riley's face as she pounded her fists against the metal when the door wouldn't open.


	2. Sparks

Nora's body began to shiver as she slowly came to. The incessant beeping of an alarm aided to rouse her from her sleep. She groggily opened her eyes in confusion. Was that her alarm to get up to go to work?

She soon came to the realisation that she was not in bed and that she was very, very cold. And then she remembered. She remembered the war, she remembered the vault, she remembered that man taking Shaun, and she remembered Nate being shot.

As the doors to her pod opened up, Nora stumbled out, tears already streaming down her face as the raw grief of losing her son and her beloved husband hit her. She placed her shaking hands on the exterior of his pod as her vision blurred. Nate was slumped, looking as blissful as though he were asleep. Nora called out his name, her voice sounding hoarse from being neglected.

"I'll find him Nate, I'll find the bastard who did this." She croaked as her hand found its way to the control panel on his pod. She quickly opened it and let out a sob as she faced the body of her husband. She traced the outline of his handsome face before finding her way to the dog tags that hung around his neck. A sob hitched in her throat as she looked at the golden ring on his left hand. Nora took his hand in her own, his cold fingers no longer supplying the supportive grip of the past, and slipped the ring into her palm.

"I love you Nate. I love you so, so much." Nora gave one final, tearful farewell to her husband before she shut the pod door again.

Once she'd wiped the tears from her eyes, and her body had warmed up considerably, she took in her surroundings. The occupants of the other pods were showing no signs of life, a chilling realisation fled through Nora that she was the only one alive before her thoughts brought her to the second room.

 _Riley._

Nora hastily made her way toward the door, she was praying that Riley was okay, that her pod was still intact. She slid to a halt when she opened the door and was faced with a monstrously sized cockroach. Nora let out whimper as goosebumps appeared on her skin. She'd always hated cockroaches, too many legs, and now there was a huge, and highly aggressive one in front of her. As the roach ran towards her, Nora shot out her foot, kicking the roach away. She quickly ran forward and jumped, succeeding I'm squashing the animal.

"What the hell?" She muttered as she looked down at the creature, Nora's eyes glimpsed a tiny black object sitting on a container just outside the door. A gun. Nora quickly reached out to grab the pistol.

"Just in case." She said to no one in particular before making her way to the other vault door. Her heart skipped a beat when she discovered it was already open. She quickly ran inside and felt her stomach lurch. Riley's pod was open, and she was nowhere to be seen.

* * *

Riley took another shot of the alcohol placed in front of her. The action of which resulted in the loud cheers of the spectators surrounding her. She grinned and let out a victorious 'whoop' as the patrons of The Third Rail cheered her on. Many of them were exchanging bottlecaps, as the young woman had attracted quite the crowd of betters.

Riley tried standing up but the alcohol in her system did not agree with her. She giggled to herself as she stumbled away from the counter of the bar. She drunkenly misinterpreted how big the step she was taking was, and felt herself plummeting toward the ground before the felt two strong arms save her from a highly embarrassing fall. Riley looked up to see her saviour and was met with the black lenses of sunglasses.

"Hiya there... you know that it's not sunny outside... I mean here... what's it called?" She scrambled for words, her speech fractured and slurred.

"You mean 'inside'? You never were the sharpest were you Riley?" The man with the sunglasses grinned as he helped his friend towards her room.

Riley stopped walking, finally acknowledging the playful insult.

She pointed her finger into her friends chest, in hopes it would stress her point.

"I'll have you know... I'm a very sharp tool. Sharpest... won't get sharper." She giggled as if some hilarious joke had been told.

"So, how many fights did you get yourself into this time?" He said as he adjusted his grip on Riley, giving her extra support.

"Only three." Riley sounded disappointed as she replied.

"Well gee, if that ain't your new personal record, soon we'll have to find you another hobby."

"Oh very... funny Simon." Riley responded, her eyes drooping ever so slightly. Deacon inwardly sighed at the fake name. He actually _wanted_ to tell Riley the truth. About him, about the Railroad, about how them bumbing into each other hadn't been a coincidence. Unfortunately, he couldn't do anything until he was 100% sure that she'd make a good agent for the Railroad.

She'd probably need to stop drinking so much, and drop the fondness for certain chems that she had. Deacon looked down at the young girl in his arms, she barely looked an adult. He slowly lowered he to her bed and smiled at how peaceful the fiery young girl looked right now. She was going to have one hell of a headache tomorrow.

"See you tomorrow, Sparks." Deacon grinned before shutting the door softly, boy did he have something big planned for her.


	3. Surprise!

Riley let out a disheartened groan as she shielded her eyes from the incoming sunlight. She didn't remember making her way back to her room in Hotel Rexford, but she did remember meeting her friend Simon, and she quickly connected the dots.

Simon, if that was him real name, which Riley suspected it wasn't, had met her a few weeks ago when she'd reluctantly freed him from a group of gunners. She'd originally thought that he must've been some next level of stupid to get caught by _that_ group of raiders who she knew were notoriously dimwitted. She'd come to look for bottlecaps and instead she'd found a hostage. She wasn't going to leave him there, the wasteland hadn't changed her _that_ much, but as soon as he made it known that he wanted to travel with her, she got cold feet.

She didn't have any friends in the Commonwealth, and there was a reason for that. Call it commitment issues, but Riley hated getting to close, waking up in a cryogenic pod to find out everyone she knew was dead could do that to a person.

In the end, Simon's charm and persistence won her over, and she was so glad that he'd come with her. She'd forgotten how it felt to have someone to watch your back.

Riley scrambled out of bed, her fingers quickly finding their way to her reflective aviators near her bed. She slowly opened her eyes and was glad for the aid that her sunglasses provided. She quickly grabbed her carry bag, and slung it over her shoulder.

Her hand flew to her head as it pulsed, a sign of an incoming headache.

 _I really have to stop getting into drinking games,_ She thought to herself as she pushed herself off the bed. In her experience, the best way to lose a hangover was to eat. Riley slowly walked to her door, opening it slowly as to reduce as much sound impossible. Her attempts went unnoticed as she was greeted with a loud voice.

"Well, if it isn't Sleeping Beauty arisen, how us feeling Sparks?"

Simon.

Riley recoiled at the booming voice in her ear and squinted up at her friend. She inwardly cringed at his nickname for her 'sparky, like a firecracker' as he'd put it.

"I'd be feeling better if there wasn't an obnoxious _moron_ yelling in my face." Riley grumbled, pushing herself out the door.

Deacon clutched his hands over his chest.

"Ouch. You wound me." He was still grinning as he followed Riley down the hallway.

"You're hanging around unusually long, what gives?" Riley asked as she held the door for Deacon to walk out first, and she followed soon behind, wincing at the onslaught of sunlight.

"I have a proposition for you." He began, "you reading to go on a daring adventure with me, help a damsel in distress?" He finished dramatically.

"What's made this damsel so distressed?" Riley asked as she pulled out her worn down leather jacket, and pulled it around her shoulders.

Deacon inwardly sighed. She hadn't rejected the idea so far, a good sign.

"She's tryna get away from a bad situation, wants to start fresh." Deacon replied as he watched Riley intently. He couldn't see her eyes, but something told him there was a flicker of understanding in them.

"Ok, we help her. So where is she?" Riley said in a confident tone.

"In a safe house, a little west of Bunker Hill. She needs an escort to a group of caravan owners who are heading out to New Vegas." Deacon said softly as they made their way to the exit of Goodneighbour. Riley gave a small wave to the guard near the gate as the door opened up.

* * *

Twenty-four bloatflys, that had to be a personal best for one trip. Riley huffed as she blew a loose strand of chestnut hair from her face. She quickly put her laser rifle between her knees as she adjusted her shoulder length hair into a tighter ponytail.

They'd just gone past Bunker Hill, so the safe house couldn't be too far. She glanced down at the map on her Pip Boy. Not too far at all.

"So Simon, how'd you find out about this girl?" Riley said, breaking the companionable silence between them.

"Read it in a newspaper advert," he began before waving his hands in front of his face, " _young gi_ _rl seeking a dashing young escort."_ he finished dramatically.

His response elicited a small laugh from Riley.

"I'm sure she'll be disappointed when she sees what you had in mind."

Riley chose to dismiss the avoidance of her question. In her experience, Simon was a very guarded man who often used humour as a way to avoid the truth. She didn't mind it though, as she saw some of herself in him.

When she'd first come into the wasteland, she wasn't used to people hiding their emotions so easily, it was as if when the bombs had dropped, individual walls had also dropped from the sky, shielding people's emotions. Trust didn't come easily to wastelanders, and Riley had learned that the hard way. She smiled as she reminisced on one of her more colourful encounters she'd first had. She was fresh from the vault, a pretty young face with a naive little mind. She'd lost all of her belongings in one day when she'd foolishly trusted some drifters who were hanging around Goodneighbour. Simon was different though, she just felt _comfortable_ around him. Sure, he was no angel, Riley could already tell he'd lied to her numerous times, and he was definitely hiding something, but she saw no malice, no ill intent behind his lies.

They ambled along the morbid landscape, scorching sun bearing down on them, in a comfortable silence until Deacon raised a hand, signalling for Riley to stop. She looked up ahead to where a small intact building stood with a single light on inside, and a strange sign written in white paint on the exterior of the door.

With a quick scan of the perimeter, Riley pulled out her lazy rifle and held it just below eye level as she crouched behind her friend.

"Alright Sparks, you know the drill."

Riley nodded and moved out ahead of Deacon, quickly making her way across the risky territory of open space between their positions and the safe house. Once she was safely across, Deacon followed.

He swung his carry bag around to his front, and began fishing for a key. Riley checks the perimeter once more as he quietly opened the door.

"He-hello?" A timid voice greeted them, and Riley was met with the sight of middle aged, dark skinned woman wearing an outfit that screamed farmer.

"Are you the agent sent to escort me?" The woman asked, and Riley could see that she had a pistol slightly aimed up, in her hand.

 _Agent?_ Riley wondered to herself.

"Yes ma'am, at your service... and you must be?" Deacon asked with deliberation, eagerly awaiting Riley's response to the answer.

"I'm G8-68, but I prefer Elise."

 _Surprise!_ Deacon thought.

Riley's eyes widened marginally in surprise as her heart rate increased. Her eyes darted cross to her companion, but she couldn't see anything behind those blasted sunglasses.

Riley knew what those numbers meant, everyone in the commonwealth did.

 _A synth? What the hell was Simon thinking?_ Confusion and anger coursed through Riley.

"Hold up. _What?"_ Riley said incredulously. Synths were bad news, Riley had heard so many ghost stories about the horrors that synths and the Institute inflicted. Riley quickly swivelled and aimed her gun on Simon.

"You. You're not with the Institute are you?" She narrowed her eyes, this was serious business.

"With them? You couldn't be further _from_ them. He's here to help me escape the Institute." The synth, Elise almost shrieked. She was heavily breathing now, clearly shocked by what had just played out.

Riley slowly lowered her gun, and was rewarded with a smirk from her companion.

"You really think so slowly of me Sparks? So, you gonna help or not?"

Riley looked from Simon to the synth. This was dangerous territory, and Riley was certainly no friend to synths. But e desperation the woman had showed resounded with something deep down in Riley. This synth, this woman, was in need, and if Riley could help, She would in any way possible.

She nodded once to her companion.

"Alright."

Deacon let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding.

* * *

Nora sat alone on one of the decrepit chairs outside what remained of her old house. She nursed a cup of foul tasting coffee in her hands as she contemplated everything that had gone down so far.

Nate was dead.

Even just thinking about it brought new tears to her eyes. She wasn't used to not having stability in her life, and Nate had been her rock. She as going to kill the bastard who'd murdered her love.

Shaun was gone.

This hurt just as much, and Nora knew she would go to any lengths to hold her baby boy in her arms again.

Riley too.

Nora was mainly confused about this, she missed having the young girl with her, but there was no sign of her friend. Codsworth hadn't seen anyone pass through Sanctuary, but he'd suggested looking into her disappearance from the Vault in Diamond City.

She also had a group of settlers to deal with. The hopeful young man, Preston, seemed trustworthy, and he'd given her useful information, she really wasn't sure about this whole Minutemen thing though. She wasn't a natural leader, not like Nate had been and she'd rather put all her efforts into locating Shaun and Riley.

Tomorrow, she'd head to Diamond City and track down the detective who would help her find her son, but for now, she needed to lie down and rest. For a _really_ long time.


	4. Commonwealth's vocabulary

It had been the stangest day. Riley sat mulling over the events that had just occured, and she was still confused. To begin with, she'd met her first, real life synth. She'd heard rumours about the synth detective in Diamond City, and the accusations that the Mayor was a synth but she'd never met one. There was also the matter of Simon. Her elusive friend, if she could call him that, had quickly vanished after they had escorted the synth away, mentioning something about 'other business' he had to take care of.

Sure, Riley was used to Simon running off, he did it so often, but now she knew that he dealt with things as serious as _synths?_ Well, that had brought upon a whole new light. But deep down, the thing that was troubling Riley most was the affect the synth had had on her. She'd had an ingrained hatred and distrust for synths ever since she'd stepped into this wretched wasteland, it was one of the first things she'd learned - you never trust a synth. But now, she'd actually met one, and it had been so human. It was creepy and intriguing at the same time, Riley had a desire to get to know the synth but a part of her wanted to stay as far away as possible.

Riley ran her grimy hands through her mussed hair and let out an agitated sigh. She pulled her jacket tighter around her body and trudged along through the barren landscape, the harsh sunlight battering her skin. She was annoyed at Simon for leaving so quickly, she had so many questions she wanted him to answer and now she had no one to go to. As her frustration peaked, her hand made its automatic route to her pant pocket, aching to feel the familiar cylindrical feel of a Jet injector. When her hand felt no such thing, her body tensed up.

 _Shit._

The first thing that went through her mind was panic, without her Jet, Riley was going to start going through withdrawal soon, she hadn't had a hit for almost a full day and she was already dealing with the consequences. Her heart began to accelerate and she could already feel the small shakes the accompanied the absence of Jet. The bigger problem was being about, alone in the Wasteland without her Jet. It was already getting dark and she didn't want to be alone out here. Her fighting skills took a toll without her Jet, and she was much better of when Simon was around.

 _Simon, god damn Simon._ Riley exasperatedly thought. He'd taken her bloody injector.

"I'm going to kill him." She muttered to herself. But that could wait, for now, she needed to get out of the open area. She immediately first thought of heading back to Goodneighbour and grabbing some Jet there but an idea was forming in her head. If the stories of the synth detective in Diamond City were true, maybe Riley could get some answers about synths from him, and besides, Diamond City had Jet as well.

* * *

Nora lay on her back, eyes open, staring at the ceiling. Silent tears trickled down her cheeks as she tried to stop her body from shaking with each sob she held in. Preston had told her to try and 'get some shut-eye' as she was up for quite the task tomorrow morning, but the thoughts of her family being taken from her were keeping her far from sleep. But Shaun was out there _somewhere_ and she needed to find him. She closed her eyes once more and tried to settle into the uncomfortable mattress but her attempt to sleep was interrupted by a wet sensation on Nora's forehead.

Tentatively opening one eye, Nora was met with two large brown orbs staring back at her.

"Oh hey, boy." She softly muttered to the German Shepherd looming over her as she stroked his soft hair. The dog, Dogmeat, reminded her off her sister in-laws old German Shepherd, a painful reminder of the world that had been. Moving over slightly, Nora allowed enough room for Dogmeat to settle down next to her.

His brown eyes soon closed, tempted by the prospect of sleep, but Nora's stayed open, for quite some time.

* * *

Slowly, and groggily, Nora opened her eyes, jarring rays of light burning her retinas. Quickly shielding her eyes from the suns glare, Nora sat up from the stale mattress she'd spent the night on. The warm weight of Dogmeat was no longer there, causing a pang of loneliness to pass through Nora.

Finally standing, Nora made her way towards the main living area in the ruins of Sanctuary, taking the longer route around so as she would not have to face going past her old home. Not yet. She stopped just outside, noticing the man (Sturges was it?) already wide awake and working on something at the workshop.

The friendly face of Preston emerged from the broken down doorway just as Nora was about to knock.

"You ready to head out General?"

Nora raised an eyebrow.

"Come on Preston, I told you not to call me that." She half scolded the younger man. His pleasant attitude and manners reminded her of when she'd first met Nate. He'd called her ' ma'am' for what seemed like forever until they started dating, the similarity caused an ache in her heart. Part of her was still insisting that Nate was okay and this crazy world was just a figment of her imagination. But she knew better, she wouldn't be able to imagine something as horrible as this.

Preston sheepishly smiled at Nora in reply. They began to make their way towards the bridge out of Sanctuary, Dogmeat dutifully trotting behind them, tail swinging from side to side.

"So, what's the safest way to Diamond City?" Nora piped up once the were past the Red Rocket where she'd found Dogmeat. Her sense of direction had been completely thrown off by the drastic change in landscape, and finding her way through the Commonwealth would surely prove to be a difficult task.

Preston let out a soft chuckle.

"Safe? That's not a word in the Commonwealth's vocabulary." A frown began to form on Nora's face. "But don't worry, if we head through Concord, we should be alright considering it's just been cleared out"

Nora sighed as she nodded. "Through Concord it is then."


	5. Long night ahead

The Great Green Jewel really was a letdown for Riley, she much preferred it when it had been a baseball stadium. The first time she'd come here, which had coincidentally been her last time, she'd hated the way people acted, the way people tried to act as if nothing had happened, tried to imitate the lives of those before that stupid bomb had gone off. It made her feel sick, seeing people desperately trying to recreate the ways of the past, and getting it tragically wrong. Diamond City was normal compared to Goodneighbour, but something about the settlement had irked Riley.

Riley looked up at the huge wall that kept Diamond City safe, light was almost gone, and she'd have to be quick to get off the abandoned streets of Boston, things weren't nearly as safe as they'd used to be. Sighing, she picked up her pace and made her way to the entrance gate.

"Hello? Anyone home?" She called into the dimly lit foyer that served as the gatekeeper's residence. A young man with sandy hair popped his head into view.

"Oh, uh, hello. What's your business in Diamond City?" The gatekeeper said.

"I'm here on an errand, and I'm looking to do some purchasing." Riley smoothly replied to his inquest, she wasn't a local visitor to the city, and she'd heard of their trouble with synths, so was expecting an inquisition.

"Alright, I'll let you on through." The gatekeeper replied, somewhat cheerily. Riley slowly raised an eyebrow.

"Well, that was quick. Thanks...?" Riley said, leaving her sentence up in the air.

"Danny. Danny Sullivan." The gatekeeper, Danny, replied quickly, a smile on his tired face.

"Thanks Danny." Riley said kindly, but her face remained as stone-like as ever. She made her way towards the entrance of Diamond City and observed the luminescent hustle and bustle of the small city, vendors were beginning to close up, and the stores that thrived on the night life were beginning to wake.

The Dugout Inn was Riley's desired destination, but first she needed to get some Jet back into her system, Chem-I-Care wasn't shut just yet, so Riley quickly made her way through the market place to the vendor.

"What can I get you?" The vendor, Solomon, if Riley remembered correctly asked.

 _Of course you memorised all the chem dealer's names. Typical._ Riley thought to herself before replying.

"Three Jet inhalers, please." Riley replied, resting her elbows on the counter. Solomon raised an eyebrow, most Wastelanders weren't used to manners, unfortunately for Riley, it was a habit she couldn't break.

Solomon turned his back to retrieve the Jet, but only returned with one canister.

"Sorry miss, a fellow came by earlier, almost ran me dry of Jet, this is the only one I've got left in stock." Solomon replied apologetically, placing the inhaler over the counter.

"Just my luck." Riley muttered before handing over the appropriate amount of bottle caps. When she'd first learned that bottle caps were now being used as currency she'd immediately regretted throwing out all the bottle caps she had ceremoniously collected over her youthful years of drinking Nuka Cola.

Picking up the Jet, Riley finally began the journey to the Dugout Inn.

"Who would buy a full stock of Jet?" She wondered aloud before her inner voice answered.

 _You would._

* * *

Deacon silently watched as Riley entered the Dugout Inn, he knew that she'd be paying for a room for the night, and if all went to plan, she'd be staying in the room he'd just placed one of Desdemona's _Join the Railroad!_ holodisks in.

Deacon sighed as he looked down at the obscenely large collection of Jet he was now in possession of.

"Now just what am I gonna do with you?".

* * *

Night was quickly descending upon Nora and Preston and the warm air of the day was turning to cold. Nora looked down at the map on her Pip Boy, they weren't too far from Diamond City, but it was getting darker, and as strange as it was to say, it was probably safer to spend the night in a settlement around here rather than risking the tumultuous journey to Diamond City.

"Oberland Station isn't too far from here General." Preston piped up amiably. Nora found his hopeful attitude endearing, especially considering his consequences, she just wished that cars were still functional and of use, walking took far too long, and Nora ultimately felt exposed in this wasteland.

"Preston, this Valentine guy, what exactly do you know about him?" Nora enquired once they'd continued walking.

"Well, he's one of the good guys, helps a lot of people out. He can help you find your son."

"And him being a synth... well, what precisely is a synth?" Nora continued.

Preston paused before answering. "Well General, there's different types, but they're all synthetic humans, made to be like you and me. Problem is, the Institute, has some messed up ideas of how to use them." He took a breath before continuing. "And after the 'Broken Mask Incident' Diamond City isn't took friendly with synth's anymore." Preston finished cryptically.

Nora raised her eyebrow. "Okay Preston, I'll bite. What's the 'Broken Mask Incident'?"

Preston almost looked pleased at her question. "Well General, many years back, decades even, a man wandered into Diamond City, everything was going fine until one day he went berserk and killed some residents. Turns out, he was a synth, and Diamond City hasn't been the same since."

A feeling of unease settled onto Nora as she eyed the younger man. The way that people so casually discussed murder unsettled her.

"That sounds... horrible." The more time Nora spent here, the more she wished it were some horrible nightmare she would wake up from. Nora was ready to ask Preston some more questions just as he slowed to a halt. He pointed forwards into the dark, and Nora caught sight of a settlement.

"Oberland's just up there, we can check in, then catch some shut-eye.

A sense of relief flushed over Nora, she was exhausted and just about ready to collapse, but the relief was short lived as dread quickly set in. She wasn't sure if she was ready to face another lonely and cold night. Her throat tightened as she thought about the unfamiliar emptiness of sleeping alone, she squeezed her eyes shut briefly before following Preston towards the dimly lit settlement, and prepared for the long night ahead.


End file.
